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Long Live Your Flowers!: How florists are keeping blooms cold
How florists are keeping blooms cold |
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Written by Rebecca Schwarz
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| What are you doing to keep the cold chain intact when flowers arrive at your shop? |
Ensuring that your flowers have a long and happy vase life is one of the most important things you as a florist can do. Customers love a flower or bouquet that lasts for weeks and this will certainly keep people coming back to your shop for more.
One of the key factors in securing a lengthy vase life for your flowers is cold chain management. Cold chain management is the practice of keeping your blooms (except tropicals) cooled to a temperature of 33-35 F (0-3 C) to reduce the rate of respiration in plants. Respiration is the term that refers to how a plant uses food. When the temperature of a flower increases, so does respiration and that in turn actually generates heat. Flowers respire faster at increased temperatures and this leads to water loss.
The cold chain starts with growers, who ship the freshly cut flowers from the field cold by plane or refrigerated trucks to wholesalers. At the wholesale level, the flowers are kept in coolers and are once again transported in cold containers to you, the retailer. (For a look at what wholesalers are doing to maintain the cold chain, check out “The Middle Link” ).
At the retail level, it’s important that you maintain this chain. Studies have revealed that breaks in the cold chain cycle can reduce the vase life of some flowers by as much as 40 per cent. Another concern is Botrytis infection, which is often spurred on by heat or condensation that occurs on the blooms when the flowers are moved from cold temperatures into warmer temperatures or vice versa. The result is an unpleasant, grey mould that will leave your flowers mushy and lifeless.
In order to gauge what florists in Canada think of cold chain management, Canadian Florist spoke to florists across the country to see what they doing to keep the cold chain intact at their level.
Grace Graham, designer for Visions from the Heart Flowers and Gifts in Hamilton, Ont., takes the time to make sure the flowers are tended to immediately upon their arrival. This is important because flowers that sit after being delivered can warm up quickly in the summer or freeze in the winter. “Flowers or foliage need the special care of immediate attention – after all, how long was their journey before arriving at our flower store?” says Graham.
Graham believes looking after flowers upon delivery is crucial. “We unpack immediately, inspect the product, and commence with the normal process of cleaning and hydrating before any product goes in the cooler. This process will ensure that no bacterial product will contaminate the existing flowers in our cooler,” she says.
Indeed, most florists we spoke to mentioned the steps they take after delivery to ensure flowers are kept at optimal temperature, and were less focused on temperature fluctuations that can occur during delivery.
Rosie Root, owner/manager of Flower Gallery in Calgary, is concerned about temperature but confesses that her vans are not refrigerated. “I probably don’t carry that as far as I should,” she says. “We try to use air-conditioned vehicles in the summer.”
Giuseppe De Carolis, owner of Don Belvedere Florists in Montreal, focuses his cold chain efforts on the time he has with the blooms once they are delivered. “From the time they’re cut, it’s out of my control,“ he says of the time that occurs between when the flowers are taken from the field and transported to the store. “I’m responsible for what happens when I pick them up here.”
At Thoughtful Gifts and Flowers in Toronto, Carm Walters makes cold chain management “a big priority” and has policies in place to make sure that the shop keeps the chain intact.
“A lot of my product comes from longer distances,” says Walters, who first learned about cold chain management at seminars and from his wholesalers. “I will not buy from any supplier that does not practise cold chain management,” Walters states. “My drivers and staff are also very aware of cold chain management – it is in our training manual.”
Walters recommends that other florists also take the time and extra effort to practise cold chain management. “Low temperatures slow down the growth of micro-organisms and bacteria like Botrytis and therefore prolong the shelf life of flowers. The price of flowers is determined at the point of sale, not at harvesting. Cold chain management is essential to avoid losing the value of your flowers, thus the temperature factor should always be considered.”
Eva van de Riet, owner of Rose Bowl Flower & Gifts in Elmsdale, N.S., is another cold chain management convert. She’s prepared to send back any delivery that arrives at an incorrect temperature. “Any box that is wrong temperature-wise, we report it back to the shipper, and they will either replace the product or find out what had happened to make the temperature too warm,” she says.
In addition to double-checking the temperatures of boxes delivered to her store, van de Riet makes sure her drivers are aware of cold chain management. “We’ve educated our driver so that he knows how to take care of them, so that his refrigerated truck is kept cool in summer. If your truck has been kept in the hot sun all weekend, it has to be cooled down before you put flowers in.”
Canadian Florist spoke with cold chain management expert Dr. George Staby of the Chain of Life Network. Read “Managing the Cold Chain 101” for more tips on how you can maintain the cold chain in your shop.
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